Over the years, a variety of techniques have been used to adapt the illumination pattern provided by a vehicle's headlights to current driving conditions, in particular preventing a vehicle's headlights from dazzling and temporarily blinding the drivers of on-coming vehicles while insuring sufficient illumination when traveling at highway speeds in areas in which there is minimal ambient lighting.
One approach to controlling a light assembly's illumination pattern is through the use of a cut-off bar which, when placed in the assembly's output beam, occludes a portion of the light beam. U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 2017/0203683 discloses such a light assembly, one in which the position of the cut-off bar is controlled by an electromagnet actuator.
U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 2017/0276311 discloses an alternate approach, one in which a mirror is used to alter the light assembly's illumination pattern. As disclosed, a collection mirror comprised of a plurality of inclinable mirror elements is located between the optical member that collects the light emitted by an LED light source and a light projection element. By controlling the position of the elements comprising the collection mirror, predetermined light distribution patterns can be formed.
While there are a variety of techniques that may be used to control the light distribution pattern from a vehicle's headlight assembly, these techniques provide limited adaptability, typically providing only two states of operation: high beams and low beams. Accordingly, what is needed is a vehicle headlight assembly that is capable of providing a variety of distribution patterns along with improved performance, where performance is assessed on the qualities of illumination homogeneity, manufacturing ease, cost, and output efficiency. The present invention provides such a light assembly.